Climate Action Team, Carbon Neutral Project, 2/21/23

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Date, Time, Location: Feb 21, 23, 1 pm, BUUF

Attending: Tom Neile, Carol Ogburn, John O’Connor, Cathy Sandstrom, Tom von Alten, Jim Bigelow

Actions:

  • Carol Ogburn – get a copy of the energy star workbook
  • Jim Bigelow – contact staff (Rachael Strong & Reverend Sara) about signing BUUF up for the Idaho Power’s Green Energy Program
  • Jim Bigelow – start process of getting window & door upgrades/replacements
  • Tom von Alten – see if the BUUF’s on-line directory will give us information to calculate the average distance from a BUUF member’s house to BUUF.
  • Jim – work with Rachael and Nancy to get the information for the Cool Congregations Carbon Footprint Calculator — see checklist

Agenda & Discussion:

  • Notes from the Jan 31, 2023 meeting
  • email: buufclimate-action-team@boiseuu.org
  • Supporting Information: Planning for Carbon Neutral
  • Funding
    • 2023 Special Appeal
      • Appeal request is $15,000
      • $1,500 from social justice funds
    • Schwartzman Endowment (is that the right word for it?)
      • $50K from the Schwartzman form the building.
      • $50K for the grounds & bridge.
    • Chalice Lighters Grant from Cascadia Chalice Lighters
      • May 1 is the application deadline for large grants (typi-cally $10,00 or more)
      • BUUF contact is Sue Philley
    • Energy Efficiency Materials Pilot Program grants DOE
      • know how to apply in may or June
  • Projects
    • coordination with climate partner,  Idaho Chapter of the Interfaith Power and Light.
      • Jim attended the monthly meeting of the Idaho Chapter of the Interfaith Power and Light.
        • Signed up for a booth/table/presentation at the Interfaith Climate Festival,  April 23rd.
        • empathise on BUUF Carbon Neutral  & its spiritual imperative 
    • Planning the Energy Future of your Congregation Webinar
      • Carol Ogburn report
        • Process:
          • 1st thing to get a bench mark, 2019 is more accurate
          • pick the thing first that gives the biggest payback
        • Strategy: do something, promote it and get everyone involved.
        • energy star workbook program
          • free resource.
          • Carol: get contact info & workbook.
    • Resource Efficiency Report – John Warren via email
      • Met with Amber Bieg & Deb Hiller LaSalle of Warm Springs Consulting (WSC)  https://www.warmspringsconsulting.com  at BUUF
      • Recommends working with them for our resource review
      • WSC will give us an initial estimate of what they could do and how much it will cost sometime in the next 2 weeks
      • See the complete report at the end of the notes
    • Goal: 100% Clean energy by 2030
      • Reduce our GHG emissions from natural gas heating
        • look at converting our gas heating to a heat pump
      • Sign up for Idaho Power’s Green Energy Program to meet our 100% clean energy goal as soon as possible, while weighing the benefits of creating a BUUF energy source such as solar panels.  – Jim
        • passed by voice vote.
    • Goal: Complete a Congregational Carbon Footprint by May 16, 2023
    • Improving BUUF Energy Efficiency
      • 3 estimates for window and door upgrades — Jim
    • Prepare to report at the annual meeting on our initial plan to make BUUF carbon neutral.
      • This is due before the May 21st annual meeting.
    • Next meeting: Outdoor sanctuary goal planning to make it easier to maintain it and improve its carbon capture.
  • Next meetings
    • March 27, 1-2 pm  BUUF
    • April 18, 1-2 BUUF
    • May 16, 1-2, BUUF

John Warren’s Report on finding a resource efficiency analysis, Feb 20, 2023

  Here is what I have learned so far, with more to come.

  • Justin Hayes, Ex Dir ICL – suggested Warm Springs Consulting and contact Steve Burgos, Boise Director of Public Works.
  • Berkeley Cool Climate Calculator for Businesses (https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/business-calculator) – there are many carbon footprint type calculators.  I played with this version as BUUF is a business, we just are non profit but have many of the same inputs and outputs as a business. Trying to determine functionality we would need. Details coming in the future.
  • Steve Burgos – email contact but no response BUT after talking with others not sure they have anything to offer at this time.
  • Lisa Hecht – teaches classes in the carbon footprint space and did teach class for BUUF @ climate change. Talked with her and she also suggested Warm Springs Consulting and provided some other useful feedback and insights.
  • Jenn Pierce – BSU Professor, Dept of Geoscience and Climate Educator. She suggested Warm Springs Consulting.In talking with her and others the prospect of involving BSU students is low and not needed by us at this time BUT potential projects may evolve in the future.
  • Warm Springs Consulting (WSC) https://www.warmspringsconsulting.com  – see details below from our conversation.

Warm Springs Consulting (WSC)

  • I met with founders and Managing Directors Amber Bieg and Deb Hiller LaSalle at the church.
  • WSC is a woman-owned B Corp founded in 2017.  They typically work with large organizations in helping them address a wide variety of sustainability issues.
  • Based on what I have learned I would suggest they are the group to support us in the assessment phase but know this is a group decision.
  • NOTE — They will provide a brief overview of what they would/could do and cost ranges in about 10 days.  They are very busy and tightly staffed.
  • The following bullets capture the gist of our almost 2-hr meeting
    • I reviewed briefly what we are trying to do: an initial assessment, GHG reduction options with costs and impacts, and then selection of projects to do based on CAT criteria and BUUF Mission and Values (the order in which they would be done are a function of cost, impact, criteria, etc.) Overall goal moving to net zero GHG impacts.
    • I used my simple chart (attached) to explain the flows in and out of BUUF.
    • Amber and I also did a brief walkaround of the entire property and the internal rooms.
    • I explained some of the challenges we face as a congregation that could potentially impact what we can do and how soon we could do it. For example: aging congregation, limited resources, constraints driven by existing facility footprint and land uses.
    • They discussed how they have worked with a range of organizations to help them conduct an assessment and develop options that make sense given that organization’s funds, values, and goal.
    • Determining what it makes sense to do is a combination of materiality (generally focusing on categories that are >1% of our total BUUF GHG) and cost effectiveness (simply the most bang for the buck given our criteria, values, and mission. Some suggestions may results in major GHG reductions but are cost prohibitive at this time)
    • They suggested considering using the ACYLMATE (https://aclymate.com/pricing) app (nominal cost to use). I will talk with the company (from Boise) next week as to its applicability for us.  Based on WSC knowledge and expertise they think it would be a very cost effective way for us to do a fairly detailed GHG (green house gas) audit.  I am happy to learn it and then work with others to collect data to populate.  It imports directly from Quickbooks so it would be easy to import needed data since we use Quickbooks. Their role would be reviewing and providing guidance on interpreting the results. This reduces costs and provides flexibility for us. NOTE…this still has some issues and I am waiting to hear back from them.
    • NOTE — GHG Assessments focus on three different levels of scope: Level 1-direct emissions (Emissions from operations that are owned or controlled by the reporting company.), Level 2-indirect emissions (Emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heating, or cooling consumed by the reporting company.), and Level 3 – indirect emissions (ll indirect emissions (not included in Scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream (suppliers) and downstream (customers) emissions. ). Generally the difficulty of calculating increases from Level 1 to Level 3. Initially, our primary focus would be on Levels 1 and 2. THE GHG Protocol has detailed resources; for those of you that like “bunny trail”. https://ghgprotocol.org/about-us
    • This will be an iterative process and we can learn, adjust, and evolve as we proceed.
    • A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT OUTSIDE/LANDSCAPE/ ETC—We may need to pursue this as a separate effort (though reflecting what we learn for the GHG part).  We can incorporate outside data as much as we can but I sense we may require a separate consideration for how best to design, manage, and sustain our outside grounds consistent with our values, donation restrictions, and available resources. Something we will need to consider and I am sure the Board would need to be involved.